1.39
“What is it?” Logan asked, his audio coming over through the comm channel instead of the outside speaker, as Cameron’s visual feed slowly transitioned back to show the landscape of Celephis.
“I… I think I leveled up?” Cameron said, uncertainty in his voice, “Thelma brought that screen up from when I’d been threaded and it said a new promotion was authorized.”
“Nice,” Logan said, “So you’re an Alpha Sirius now?”
“Alpha Primus, actually,” Cameron said.
“What?!” Logan said, somehow finding the strength to clamber out from underneath the Cleaver’s weight as Cameron lifted it. He shot to his feet, surprise evident in his voice as he spoke, “You mean to tell me that you completely skipped Sirius rank and jumped to Primus? Now you’re one rank away from hitting Beta class?”
Cameron could only shrug, unsure as to what constituted the reasoning for his jump, “I mean… I did kill five squires, three A.R.M.S. pilots of various Alpha ranks, and I killed the Gamma.”
“Technically speaking,” Logan shot back, “The Gamma killed himself.”
“Eh, we helped him along.”
“Fair enough,” Logan said, before curiosity got the best of him, “Hey Vic, can you tell me if they’re any updates to my profile?”
The VI didn’t even take a moment to think of a response, a twinge of excitement coming through his usual posh and proper tone.
“As a matter of fact, there is Sir!” Vic said, “As of forty-eight seconds ago, you are now classified as a Gamma rank pilot, Logos grade.”
“Oh thank the stars!” Logan exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air in celebration, “I broke through! Finally! After nearly two years, I can call myself a Gamma class!”
“Hey that’s great boss!” Cameron said, thumbing towards the direction of the train, “What do you say we wrap shit up here with these guys then get back to the ship? We can crack open some wine and celebrate with the team.”
“I’m not opposed to that,” Logan said, “But first I need to do something.”
He kneeled down next to the Cleaver, studying it for a moment. Seemingly approving of his decision he reached up and yanked the three hefty blades buried in the units chest free, before dragging one of Crusader’s fingers along the front of the chassis. There was a small indentation on the side of the cockpit, big enough for the one of the mech’s hands to fit through. He pushed it inside and with a mighty grunt, the dented front carapace of the Cleaver came free, being flung to the side along with a bloody and mangled Riordan, his body hitting the ground with a messy wet thwap.
“Woah!” Cameron exclaimed, taking a step forward and preparing to intervene at the unprovoked desecration, “What the fuck are you doing?!”
“You asked me about how we salvage mechs,” Logan said casually, not bothering to look in his direction, “This is how.” He then proceeded to grab the three Cleavers and toss them into the now empty cockpit, before pulling out a small disk shaped device from it’s place on the back of Crusader’s shield and dropping it in with it. Logan finished his macarbe chore by wedging the cockpit door back into place be standing up and turning to look at Cameron.
“I thought you said, you don’t do salvage?” Cameron asked, snark filling evident in his tone, “Something about not being worth it?”
“Yeah well, I lied,” Logan said, “Besides, it’s not the mech I’m doing this for. It’s for whatever targeting system he had to cause those axes to chase you.”
“Why do you wan’t those? I thought you couldn’t use other units weapons?”
Cameron could hear Logan’s smile through the static as he replied, “That targeting system isn’t stock with a Cleaver unit. It’s aftermarket. Probably only saved for Gamma class and up. Which as of right now, I can count myself in that designation.”
Cameron caught on quick to what his mentor was getting at, his own voice dripping with amusement now, “Oh, so you’re about to do something either really cool, or really fucking dumb, aren’t you?”
“Best thing about being Gamma class kid,” Logan said, “We get to accessorize.”
With that, Logan opened up the comm channel to the train personnel, speaking in a more upbeat tone now that the hard part was done.
“Grizzly-One to Honeypot-Actual, how copy, over?”
“Go for Honeypot, Grizzly,” The familiar voice from the train responded back after a few moments.
“All targets KIA, Honeypot. Me and the kid here will pull security till the engineers get here to fix y’all up and then we’ll prep for exfil.”
“Roger that Grizzly-One. I appreciate the assistance as does the rest of Celephis Oil. I hope the bosses up top find a good enough reward for you all, because I don’t think silver will be enough.”
“Let’s not get too noble there Honeypot,” Logan said with a chuckle, “I think silver will work just fine. Grizzly out.”
Killian Gray stared at the drone control tablet installed into his flak vest intently, eyebrows furrowed, and deep in thought. Manipulating the device, he zoomed in on the screen, watching his target and another pilot fight Riordan Red. Well… Fight wasn’t exactly the right word. It looked more like Red was putting on a clinic and the two mercs were just barely surviving his onslaught.
“Interesting…” He said softly, guiding the drone as it circled around the battlefield, getting a full panoramic view of the event. He needn’t worry about being picked up on the A.R.M.S. scanners. He’d paid a kings ransom to make sure of it. If anything, to him, this drone was almost as important as his Shadow unit.. almost.
He watched in silence for a few more minutes, just long enough to see his target dancing around Riordan’s Bloody Haze with the confidence and expertise of a pilot ten years his senior. When the kid flipped over the three axes, causing them to bury themselves into the Cleaver’s torso, he wasn’t surprised. Bloody Haze was an ability that was more theatrical than useful. Any Assault variant that was worth a damn would be able to do the same thing Ket did. He scoffed, taking a long drag from a cigarette hanging from his lip before recalling the drone, and closing the tablet. Pushing an earpiece in and clicking it a few times, he heard the raspy breath of his Second-In-Command Dyatlov on the other end, indicating he was listening.
“Recall,” Gray said, “Reconvene back at the shroud. I wanna know when their ship departs the system. Keep a three-hour distance. I’ll be there soon and we can play further.”
“Sir…” Dyatlov said after a moment, “They’re obviously injured. Wouldn’t it be best to do it now?”
“Are you saying you no better than me?” Gray responder, causing a series of nervous sputters and coughs from the other of the line.
“N-No Sir. Not at all. It’s just that-”
“I’m not engaging in an environment that poses a threat to visibility and movement. You know this. Besides, now we know how they operate. We can plan around when we know the target is isolated. Now do as your told and get back to base.”
Dyatlov didn’t respond with words. But a series of clicks on the other end confirmed for Gray that he understood. Now, he just need to give one more order. He fiddled with the earpiece until he got the channel for another of his men, Akonge. There was no raspy breathing, but Killian knew he was listening.
“Put a bullet in Dyatlov and dump him out the airlock. He forgot his place.”
A series of clicks told him it would be done before he got back.
By the time they made it back to the Fenris, Logan was beyond exhausted. From the hours it took to wait for a relief crew to arrive, as well as waiting for the gravity lifts on the ship to slowly transport them up the miles and miles of atmosphere until they were safely aboard, he could barely keep his eyes open. Luckily, when Aurora greeted him with a sealed letter marked TOP SECRET, it woke him up fairly quick.
“Where did you get this?” He asked, taking the letter from her and turning it over in his hands as Aurora explained everything that had happened in his and Cameron’s absence.
“About two hours ago,” She said, eyes focused intently on the letter, sounding slightly concerned, “Some small, speedy ship bearing EarthGov markings pulled up and requested an audience. I told them you weren’t available, so they just sent this over through a bridge tube and sped off.”
“Interesting…” Logan said, running his thumb over a raised crest at the bottom right of the envelope. He looked up, seeing Aurora’s nervous stare at the parcel, causing him to put the letter in his back pocket, taking it out of her view and causing her to look up at him.
“I-I’m sorry boss I wasn’t trying to-”
“Go get Cam out the Headsman, and radio for Marcus to meet me in my quarters.”
“Oh… Y-Yeah sure…” She said, her eyes downcast in a strange sense of disappointment. She chewed her lip for a moment, contemplating what to say, if anything. After a moment, she spoke, sincerity in her voice as she voiced her concern, “Everything okay? We’re not in trouble or anything are we?”
“Hm?” He said, looking up and showing that he was clearly lost in thought, “Oh… yeah. Yeah we’re fine. We should be anyways.”
“Should be? What’s going Logan?”
“Aurora,” Logan said, his tone growing hard and cold, “Just do your fucking job and stop asking me questions. This doesn’t concern you.”
The light left her eyes then, along with the warmth. She bit her lip, likely to stop herself from saying something she’d come to regret. Instead she just nodded, widening her eyes cartoonishly to avoid rolling them, as she responded in tense, professional tone, “Sure thing… boss.”
Logan didn’t bother to respond, he was already walking away, envelope in hand, and anxiety mounting.
Cameron’s body felt stiff and sluggish as he hopped down from the cockpit, feeling the cool air waft across his skin as he stretched, watching the exchange between Logan and Aurora from across the hangar. He watched Logan stalk off from his landing pad, towards the automatic doors leading towards the crew quarters. His gaze then turned to Aurora, looking downtrodden and deep in thought, before with a heavy sigh she turned and made her way to where Cameron was standing.
“What was that all about?” He asked, point with his chin towards the door leading away from the hanger.
Aurora shrugged, sighing again, “I don’t fucking know. Some EarthGov letter came for him while y’all were planet-side and he got all weird and bitchy.”
“EarthGov?” He asked, “What the hell does EarthGov want with a Gamma Class?”
“You’re guess is as good as mine Cam,” she said, looking back towards the doorway before blinking and craning her neck back to look at him, doing a double take, “Wait… did you say Gamma Class?”
“Hm? Oh, Yeah. He hit Gamma class, and I hit Alpha Primus.”
“You hit Alpha Primus?!” She exclaimed, causing Cameron to look at her with slight befuddlement.
“Yeah? I mean we fought a Gamma down there after all, so it wasn’t-”
“You fought a Gamma?!”
“You gonna let me tell the story or not?!”
She scrunched her nose cutely, a soft blush forming on her cheeks from embarrassment, as she held her hands up in surrender, “My bad… Please continue,”
Cameron eyed her warily for a long time, eyebrow raised in uncertainty. After a moment however, he shrugged and went back to recanting his and Logan’s adventure planet-side.
“Anyways,” he began, “Yeah, so after me and Logan got rid of like five Squires and four other A.R.M.S. units, we-”
“There were how many A.R.M.S. units?” She asked, a smirk beginning to form at the corner of her mouth, as she feigned astonishment.
“I’m gonna push you out of that fucking airlock.”
Logan paced back and forth, arms clasped tightly behind his back as he waited for Marcus to arrive, his eyes focused intently at the unassuming envelope that lay atop his desk, cut open and it’s contents splayed out for all to see. So intently was his focus, that he barely registered the sound of the door opening, as well as Marcus’s polite clearing of the throat in order to draw his attention.
“Marcus,” Logan said, not bother to look around, “How much money would it take for you to take a job you had no sense in taking?”
“I sorry?” The old man said, surprise in his voice.
“It’s not like it’s something I haven’t done before,” Logan said, still keeping his back to Marcus, “Well… some of it I’ve done before. But the rest of it… it’s not sitting right with me.
“Why even consider it then?” Marcus asked, “You’ve been in this field long enough to know when to trust your gut.”
“Because they’re not asking so much as ordering,” Logan said, finally turning to face Marcus now. He reached down to grab the contents of the envelope before handing them over to the man, pointing at them with an accusatory finger, “Read that.”
Marcus grabbed the documents and analyzed them. Over and over again he read, becoming increasingly more visibly stressed as he did so. Finally, with a frustrated cry he threw his hands up in defeat and bellowed out, “What the hell are they playing at?!”
“Well shit,” Logan said, giving a small chuckle, “If they have you getting all up in arms, then I know the situations fucked.”
“This isn’t funny, Logan,” Marcus said, gazing up at him like a father chastising a child.
“I know it’s not Marcus, but what the hell are we gonna do? I mean for one, it’s not like we exactly have a choice in the matter. Free-Space or not if EarthGov is hand delivering something, then it’s not exactly a fucking request. And for two-”
“The money,” Marcus finished.
“Yeah the money,” Logan acknowledged nodding his head.
“Well…” Marcus said, looking up to meet Logan’s eyes, “I trust you Logan. What are you planning to do?”
Logan looked at Marcus for a long time, chewing the inside of his cheek as he contemplated. After a while, he turned and walked over to a nearby intercom system set into the wall. When his mind was made up, he pushed the button to relay his orders to the VI navigation system.
“Vic, set a course back for Arsius. And ping Alistair Kincaid on his captain’s code. Number 152-A31. Tell him that I’m coming to talk about the contract and I expect to be welcomed with open arms and expensive whiskey.”